


Dreams

by tveckling



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Established Relationship, Humansider, M/M, Nightmares, Post-DotO
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-24 16:35:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14359350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tveckling/pseuds/tveckling
Summary: “What if one day I wake up and you don’t?”





	Dreams

The nightmares began a few weeks after the Outsider had moved into Corvo’s rooms in the Tower. At first the dreams had been something exciting, something the Outsider almost looked forward to—he had never slept in the Void, and so he had forgotten what dreams were like—but with the nightmares plaguing his sleep night after night the excitement disappeared. Dark circles grew beneath his eyes, making him look hauntingly like the inhuman being he had been, and his skin was losing the color he had gained. Emily and Billie sent him sometimes worried looks, sometimes sympathetic. They both knew about the demons that appeared when you slept.

But only Corvo truly knew, since the Outsider didn’t want to talk about his nightly terrors. Only Corvo knew how he woke in the night, mouth agape in a scream but unable to make a sound. Only Corvo knew the way he shook helplessly in his whole body, all the force of thousands of years of paralyzing horror and cold and loneliness hitting him. Only Corvo knew about the dreams he had, though they seemed less like dreams and more like memories, as he desperately talked about them with a hoarse voice while clinging to Corvo. Corvo, used to terrors of his own, didn’t sleep much to begin with, and he silently held the Outsider tight until the words ran out and the shaking stopped.

“The Void has more reach than most knows.” The Outsider’s voice was quiet, strained, weak. He had already spoken for over an hour, in an almost feverish way, and only recently had he calmed down enough for his heart to stop racing. “Whenever you’re asleep, that’s when it reaches you the easiest. It’s why I always visited you when you were asleep.”

Corvo hummed, stroking the Outsider’s back. He already knew this, but he didn’t know what his lover wanted to say so he stayed quiet.

“Even awake I feel the pull of it, even if I can ignore it. But asleep I am easy prey, even more than others. I can feel the anger, the intention to hurt. It’s why I have these dreams. Every night I feel the presence of the Void, heavy in my mouth, in my ears, behind my eyes. I feel it.” His voice broke and the Outsider’s fingers clenched in Corvo’s shirt. “I fear- I can’t help but wonder. What if these dreams get worse? What if they aren’t enough? What if one day I don’t wake up? Or,” he swallowed, pressed his face harder into Corvo’s collarbone, “what if one day I wake up and you don’t?”

Corvo frowned. “Is that possible?”

The Outsider barked a bitter laugh. “You have had much to do with the Void, more than most humans, but you don’t have any idea of what it can do. Not really.” Shaking his head he leaned up on his arms to look down on Corvo. “It’s child’s play to grab a person when they sleep, lock their consciousness away while their body rot in this world, forever trapped in a state of sleep. I fear every night now, that when I wake up—if I wake up—then you will be gone, taken from me. Just like I was taken from the Void.”

Corvo pulled the Outsider down again, pressing him tight against his chest. “You didn’t belong to that damn place in the first place. It has no claim on you, not then, not now. If it tries to separate us, in whatever way, I will fight it and I will win.”

The Outsider sighed softly, but the tension in his shoulders melted away. “I know you. I have watched you throughout your life, and I have seen you beat impossible odds. If it’s you, dear Corvo, I might actually believe you.”

“That’s all I ask,” Corvo said and caressed the Outsider’s face.

With that the conversation was done, but even though neither of them fell asleep again they held each other tight, relishing in the sense of safety.


End file.
